Civilizational Diversity as Challenge to the (False) Universality of International Law

Onuma Yasuaki's 2017 treatise, 'International Law in a Transcivilizational World', is an essential critical contribution to the analysis of international law. Onuma's main claim is that West-centrism or what he (in my view somewhat misleadingly; more on this later) calls Eurocentrism continues to be a fundamental structural problem in international law. In Onuma's analysis, the concepts, institutions, and the very language of international law are historically biased in favour of Eurocentrism. International law must undergo peaceful change in order to reflect global shifts in economic and military power as well as demographic realities-but mostly just reflecting also the values, interests, and preferences of other, non-Western civilizations.